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Killing the Taskbar

Last response: in Windows 7
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Win 7 Home "Premium" 64 bit in a 4 core new build. Although I have ALL the apparently available settings adjusted to minimize the taskbar's presence (lock the taskbar, autohide the taskbar, everything in the notification area set to "hide icon and notifications"), it will STILL appear as though it, or an open application, wants to "tell me something". Often, this will happen when I have 12 or more windows open, 6 Firefox pages, 4 WE windows, a couple Word docs, just a general mix. This would be bad enough, but it DOES NOT INDICATE WHICH open window "wants me", you know, by having THAT ICON turn a different color, or blink or something similar, so the only thing I can do to get the GD taskbar outta my face is close windows one by one, until I get to the offending window. WHILE I'M RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF TRYING TO DO SOMETHING! This has happened hundreds of times since I began using the OS, and NOT ONE TIME has there been a need for the app in question to "get my attention". It always turns out to be a FF page just sitting on Google, or a WE window where nothing has changed for an hour or more, or some similar non-issue situation. I also don't like how the bloody thing "pops up" when the mouse moves to the bottom of the screen. Often this happens when I am doing a CTRL/F search, or trying to scroll the page side to side, or access something at the bottom of a web page or app, etc. Is there a WAY TO SET THE &%$!#%! thing so it ONLY appears when I press the window key, and NEVER at any other time???

I've used every MS OS going back to DOS. I liked XP & Win2K. I can't stand Win7. Most annoying, crashy, access limiting, controlling, dumbed-down, in-your-face bloody thing. The only OS I've used which was worse (maybe) was the abysmal ME. People who like 7 usually preface that observation by saying "It's WAY better than VISTA"!!! Talk about damning with faint praise. I only ran Vista briefly in BETA. I don't doubt it was worse, but 7 is infuriating enough. The only reason I don't reload XP is I don't have a 64 bit version to make use of my 6 gig of RAM.

jm99

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Sounds like someone needs a Hug.

Win 7 > Win Vista
Win XP was great for the day but that day came and went. if you want to use ur 6gb or RAM, SSD, DX 11 and all those other nice things u'll have to move with the times.

I am assuming you just got this PC and have only had win 7 for a little while.

give it a good go. you will get used to it, then you will like it, then you will wonder why you ever liked XP.
Windows 7 Expert

"6 Firefox pages'- Please use tab in Firefox.

Also, I don't get what you mean by you have to close window one by one.

Just put your mouse over the flashing icon on the taskbar requiring attention and it opens a preview of the windows. You can click on it to access it or if you want to close it, simply click the red cross on the corner of the preview.

I don't know about "going with the times". Why, because M$ decided it was "time" to sell some new software? XP met my fairly broad needs perfectly well. I've been using Win7 for about 9 months in a strong i7 PC I built around a GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 MOBO. I use it for general PC/word processing/internet, and also as a HTPC with a fair amount of file processing, so I have run a fair range of applications on it. I find win7 to be inferior to XP in every way I care about, as well as a PITA to use in ways XP NEVER was. I don't mind keeping pace with technology, I wouldn't have replaced my existing machine, a core duo I built a few years ago and which was still pretty fast, with this setup, But I see no aspect of 7 as being an improvement.

I prefer to avoid the mouse, I'd rather alt/tab between open apps., so I don't use tabs. But that still doesn't explain the behavior. I have the taskbar hidden. It will simply "pop up" on its own, not from a mouseover or pressing the windows key. It just sits there, "up", displaying an icon for each open apps, with none distinguished in any way (I have it set so it doesn't group them) The only way to get it to hide again, is to go to each open app page, click, and see if the taskbar hides again (or alternately, close them one by one, and again, the taskbar disappears when the app page which caused it to appear is shut). I'm not the only one I've seen post on this in various forums.

I would just like the thing to STAY HIDDEN until I press the windows key. Anyone know if there's a way to do this?
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set the superbar to small icons, buy a decent sized monitor, and leave the thing up. I have always hated the 'hide the taskbar' option because something always needs your attention for one reason or another. In all likelyhood, especially with a new build, it is complaining about updates for something for something (there are ~300 updates if you do a fresh install of win7 from an origional release disc, not to mention the damn adobe and java updates ever week or 2).

Also, look in your notifications settings, there are a lot of things you can automatically ignore (like 'you need a backup or you are going to hell", or "you are connected at some speed that you already know about, but I just wanted to reiterate the point that you are not on fiber channel yet", or "I am updating windows, but dont really want to let you see the update window so I am going to have these popup messages ever 2 seconds until I am ready for you"). Sure they are annoying, but that is why you can turn them off.

Also; you dont like tabbed browsing? I mean really? I cant think of a better way to organize my thoughts while researching different things. Nothing worse than a bunch of cluttered windows everywhere. If you hate your mouse so much then perhaps it is time for a different mouse. If a traditonal mouse is not your thing, then try a logitech mouse with a thumb ball. There is a bit of a learning curve to them, but they are great because it makes the mouse much more 'keyboard' like because you dont have to move it.

Lastly, I dont know about your memory, but win7 is much more like win2K in behavior and navigation than XP ever was. You have all the power user features easily accessible again, and laid out in a near-logical order, and you dont have to deal with the cartoon interface of XP ever again!

Also, what did you buy the i7 for? I'm just wondering as many people dont have applications that can use it.
Windows 7 Authority

mrmotion said:
you could always load your windows xp and run it in that damn compatibility or whatever the hell that is mode.

He has Win 7 Home "Premium" 64 bit, it has no XPmode. Starts with the Pro version.

Well just load XP 32bit on and deal with less than 4 GB of ram.

XP was released in 2001, it’s a 10 year old OS. It ran 3x longer than it should have and for this people got used to it. They owned 2 or 3 computers in a row with XP.

You don’t "Have" to change, Microsoft did not force you. what happened to your old XP computer?

People don’t bitch when a new model car comes out every year, or a new phone 5 times a year but it seems to be the case with a new OS (on average every 3 years)

we should just outlaw all updates and new technology. Ban the internet and all work with paper and pencils.

You came to a Tech forum to bitch about switching to new technology perhaps a better scene for your rant would be a retirement village.


Heres something that i do because i also hate the look of the anoying taskbar...

I set it to not combine with small icons so its half the size and i changed it to be at the top of the monitor.

Hope this helps, also "xpmode" is not that great its like RDP with the little menu bar at the top..
Windows 7 Authority

Herr_Koos said:
I don't follow. What do you mean?


He's using the VM in window'd mode instead of using "seamless windows". Either he doesn't know about seamless windows or his VM software doesn't support it.

Hawkeye22 said:
He's using the VM in window'd mode instead of using "seamless windows". Either he doesn't know about seamless windows or his VM software doesn't support it.



Iv used seamless mode before, its great with ubuntu / win7.. win7 xpmode feels the same as when i RDP and xp machine. It has the anoying options bar like RDP. I don't think their is a seamless mode with "xpmode"

joeman99 said:


I've used every MS OS going back to DOS. I liked XP & Win2K. I can't stand Win7. Most annoying, crashy, access limiting, controlling, dumbed-down, in-your-face bloody thing. The only OS I've used which was worse (maybe) was the abysmal ME. People who like 7 usually preface that observation by saying "It's WAY better than VISTA"!!! Talk about damning with faint praise. I only ran Vista briefly in BETA. I don't doubt it was worse, but 7 is infuriating enough. The only reason I don't reload XP is I don't have a 64 bit version to make use of my 6 gig of RAM.

jm99


My first computer had xp.. I switched to linux when vista came out, but went back to windows 7 only because my friend gave me free copys (no pirated) windows 7 does not have any problems that i can see, i only ever had it crash once, but it was my fault because i was overclocking.

It must be just me getting to the party late because windows 7 SP1 is a lot more stable then windows xp SP3 on the same machine. When gaming windows 7 gets an average of 30FPS faster in my test. Windows 7 allowed me to achieve a higher overclock then windows xp.

Windows 7 is not dumbed down. It has compatibility for older programs (compatibility mode), really its harder to use for the average user because of all its customization. Access limiting is the same as windows xp, but with a prettier way of warning users, UAC can be turned off, warnings from the taskbar can be disabled too. the "pop up" is called windows areo, I don't use it i disabled it.

I still run windows xp on a few computers ( my sisters new computer runs it) The logic of not using xp because you have 6gb of ram is silly. I bet most of your programs are 32-bit thus only using up to 2gb of ram anyway. The 64-bit of windows xp is pointless because not many programs are 64-bit windows xp compatible.
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